Cognotes 2018 Annual Conference Highlights - 6

COGNOTES

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2018 ANNUAL HIGHLIGHTS

Sally Field Tells of Making Herself Whole
In Pieces is
the collective
experience of
Sally Field received a standing ovation as
Field chasing
she entered the auditorium June 23, to which
'fireflies' through
she responded, "Yay, libraries!" But seconds
after sitting down with Donna Seaman, edi- her childhood,
tor at Booklist, things turned serious as the current-day
conversation transitioned to talking about struggles, and
Field's upcoming memoir In Pieces, which the dark times
chronicles her troubled childhood and how that were not so
she learned to deal with it. When asked what full of sparkle.
by Paige J. Dhyne/University of Illinois
at Urbana-Champaign iSchool

she did to de-stress, she responded, "Journaling." "I had a story to tell, I just didn't know
what it was, when, or how I would ever do it.
And so these journals were my friends. They
were my confidantes. It really saved my life."
She emphasized that she felt empowered
by writing. Journaling was not just escapism, but a form of survival and activity she
could do "offstage," because onstage, she
became undistracted and alive. Field said
that while writing kept her separated from
her broken childhood, acting was how she
connected those pieces; she found pieces of
herself in all her characters.
She was 12 when she performed for the
first time. "This was so shockingly bright in
its effect," she said, "Something sparkling
like fireflies on the edges of my eyes, but
when I turned to see what it was, I couldn't
see it... I have literally spent the rest of my
life running after those fireflies on the edges
of my eyes."

In Pieces is the collective experience of
Field chasing those 'fireflies' through her
childhood, current-day struggles, and the
dark times that were not so full of sparkle.
The memoir took seven years to write as she
rediscovered herself in childhood journals.
Connecting with those garbled pieces of
herself was the only way to understand her
own story and the relationships that had unfinished ends, particularly with her mother.
Seaman asked if Field would continue
writing, to which she responded, "Oh,

Sally Field discussed journaling and chasing "fireflies" on June 23.

I haven't stopped. I've always written."
She admitted she wasn't always a reader,
however. She came to books in her mid-

twenties as a result of finding peace with
who she was. "Words are everything, you
know - they are my best friends."

Robert Fieseler: A Book Talk
to Restore Remembrance
by Paige J. Dhyne, University of Illinois
Urbana-Champaign iSchool

Everyone has a story, and Robert Fieseler

Thanks for
visiting us
at the show

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gives voice to the historically silenced. In his
nonfiction work, Tinderbox: The Untold Story
of the Up Stairs Lounge Fire and the Rise of
Gay Liberation, Fieseler tells the stories of 32
victims of the New Orleans Up Stairs Lounge
Fire of June 24, 1973, the largest murder
in the LGBTQA+ community prior to the
Pulse nightclub shooting in 2016. Covered
up by the media both locally and worldwide, this event was previously unknown to
Fieseler even though it took place between
the Stonewall Riots and the assassination of
Harvey Milk. "I couldn't believe it. With my
knowledge of gay history, I thought I was an
expert," Feiseler remarked, "and I realized I
was missing this whole time where the early
gay rights movement was nascent, just getting started."
Fieseler's book is a culmination of his
research, as pulled together from police and
fire marshal reports, and from interviews with
the survivors who, after the Pulse nightclub
shooting in 2016, felt a calling - an obligation - to tell their stories and claim their
identities. He urged that this story does not
just belong to them, but to all of us in a time
in which diverse voices must speak loudest
and be echoed by allies. To this day, there

are continuing efforts to bring justice for the
victims of the fire, a result of what Fieseler
called "a collective amnesia" that swept not
only New Orleans, but the world in 1973
and forced the closeting of gay individuals to
remain silent in their suffering. In attendance
was the family of Ferris LeBlanc, who was a
victim of the fire, and his family still fights to
bring him home for a hero's burial as a veteran
of World War II.
Collectively, the story of the victims and
survivors of the Up Stairs Lounge Fire has new
life in the hands of LGBTQA+ historian Fieseler, who resurrected the proverbial phoenix
from the ashes in the name of compassion,
humanity, and activism. Fieseler concluded
with the words they used to sing in the Up
Stairs Lounge from the 1970s musical group,
Brotherhood of Man: "United we stand.
Divided we fall / And if our backs should
ever be against the wall / We'll be together,
Together you and I."
In memoriam of the 45th anniversary of
the Up Stairs Lounge fire, a service was held
at St. Mark's United Methodist Church June
24, followed by a Second Line parade to the
location of the historical plaque commemorating the victims of the fire.

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